Buffy The Vampire Slayer

How hot was it at the Rose Bowl during the CBS party?

Sweat poured down Charlie Sheen’s forehead like Yosemite’s famous falls. CBS stars, executives and TV critics gathered for a sports-themed schmooz fest on the Rose Bowl field at the summer press tour taking place in Pasadena.

The UCLA marching band blasted tunes as we walked through the tunnel and on to the field, feeling like the quarterback in the big game.

Game on, my friends.

Say what you will about Charlie, and goodness knows his ex-wife Denise Richards has in several legal actions, but he’s always been a joy and a gentleman at these parties for TV critics.

His Nazi-like personal manager had made sure that everyone who wanted to interview his client lined up to take turns for a few minutes of one-on-one Sheen time.

Unfortunately, the usual interview protocol at such events calls for a quick grab and gab. But when I walked past for a casual chat, the agent snapped, “There’s a line. Get behind it if you want to talk.”

Now, most actors would just act as though nothing had happened, but not our Charlie. He turned to me, flashed that 1,000-watt charm through a devilish smile and said, “What? You didn’t get the memo? I thought EVERYONE got the memo on how this was supposed to go.” That’s why we fall for the bad boys.

Before that, Charlie was seen getting chummy with San Mateo native Dennis Haysbert (the two co-starred in “Navy Seals” and “Major League”). Haysbert says he couldn’t be happier in his role as the tough leader of “The Unit” on CBS.

“I’m in heaven,” says Haysbert in that rich voice that makes you want to buy All-State Insurance every time he’s hawking it in that commercial. “This is a new show that people haven’t seen before, a real-life behind-the-scenes in the military.”

Haysbert says he thinks most people still associate him with the role of President David Palmer in “24,” but he thinks that will change this season.

“I think we’ll get more people tuning in and realizing what a great show this is,” Haysbert says.

Fremont’s own Shoshannah Stern co-stars in the new CBS series “Jericho” as one of the townspeople cut off from the rest of the world after a mysterious nuclear chain reaction rocks the country.

The role wasn’t originally written for a deaf girl, but Shoshannah so wowed the casting director and producer Jon Turteltaub that she easily got the job. Turteltaub says she’s an amazing actress who not only gets better and better, “she also gets prettier and prettier in every scene.”

Stern also played “the deaf whore” on “Weeds.”

“My mom hates it when I say that,” she signed through her interpreter. “I took her to a Weeds’ (press) party and kept telling everyone I was the deaf whore, and my mom kept telling me stop saying that!’ “

She thinks Mom will be happier with this role as the sweet young country girl.

Oakland native Shemar Moore of “Criminal Minds” spent most of the night playing the field, and we don’t mean just tossing the football back and forth.

Moore says he was up in Vallejo recently to help out a friend’s mom, who owns a beauty supply store there.

“He asked if I could come up and help her out and since I was coming up to see my mom in Oakland anyway, I said sure,” Moore says. “So I sat out there all day giving autographs to anyone who would buy something in the store.”

He couldn’t remember the name of the store, but he said his friend’s name was Jacori.

“I don’t remember his last name,” he said right before jogging off to toss the football around with some friends whose last names he might possibly know because they were wearing nametags.

How much do we love the folks from “How I Met Your Mother’’? Neil Patrick Harris says he hopes the producers write that his self-centered character Barney ends up being the first person in the group to have sex with the woman who eventually becomes the mother. “We could call it How I Met Your Mother in a Minute and a Half,’ “ jokes Harris., who despite his success on the show will always be Doogie to us. (Sorry Neil!)

Jason Segel, who plays Marshall, was sporting a red beard for a new movie he’s filming, “Knocked Up” by Judd Apatow. The two are reunited from “Freaks and Geeks.”

Segel says the breakup of Marshall and Lily (Alyson Hannigan) on the show means he’ll be spending a lot more time stalking Lily _ who had an affair.

“I think I’m pretty well gone after that finale,” she says in that sweet voice. “But, you never know.”

Some actors like Gary Sinise just hung around the entrance near the band, chatted with some pals and then left. But other big stars like Ray Liotta and Virginia Madsen stuck around to pump up their new series “Smith,” a dark take on criminals.

Liotta got hammered in his session with critics earlier that day for the series

being too dark, so when he walked up to me and another reporter talking to producer John Wells, he snapped, “Who were those jokers?” Wells said, “Well, these are two of the jokers.”

Liotta looked like he wasn’t sure if he should play the game or take our kneecaps out. Then the other reporter praised a scene in “Smith” not starring Liotta.

Without missing a beat, the tough guy shot back “That was NOT the best scene.”

Guess the critic should have mentioned a Liotta scene.